Year: 2003

I have written before about the danger posed by the Super-DMCA’s ban on concealing the origin or destination of communication. I want to turn your attention now to a much more egregious provision of these bills – the ban on devices and information. Here is the relevant portion of the MPAA’s model legislative language: Any…

A Massachusetts legislative committee held a hearing today about their super-DMCA bill. By all reports, the committee got the message loud and clear about the drawbacks of the bill. John Palfrey and Derek Slater were there and describe what happened.

The Super-DMCA bills are based on model legislation that has been circulated by the MPAA. I now have the text of the model legislation (Word format; PDF), along with a summary of it also circulated by MPAA (Word format; PDF). Predictably, the summary makes no mention of the ban on concealing message origin or destination.

The Colorado Senate’s consideration of their Super-DMCA bill, originally scheduled for yesterday, has now been deferred until April 7. There is some indication this may have been due to calls from constituents about the bill. In any case, the delay gives Colorado residents more time to contact their representatives and explain the problems with the…

Louis Trager at the Washington Internet Daily reports that Super-DMCA bills have already passed in several states: The low-profile lobbying effort was under way about 2 years before it burst into the open in recent days. Legislation supported by MPAA was enacted in [Delaware] and [Maryland] in 2001 and in [Illinois], [Michigan] and [Virginia] last…

Most of the reponses to my super-DMCA postings have been supportive, but a few people have disagreed. Some of the disagreements say, essentially, that there is no problem, because the bills are intended as anti-piracy measures, to prevent people from using cable, phone, or wireless service without paying. (Let me put any doubts to rest…

Thursday’s New York Times ran an article by Thomas J. Fitzgerald about how to protect your privacy on-line. Here is an excerpt: The tools and techniques that can be used to strengthen online privacy range from ways of masking your computer’s identity as you surf the Web to software for managing cookies to services that…

I have created a page at http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/superdmca.html with information about the state Super-DMCA bills and laws. I will update the page with status information as it comes in, and later with information about efforts to help educate lawmakers about this issue.